Tony Blair ready to negotiate with terrorists / Italy paid $1m ransom to terrorists

UPDATE: Growing confirmations that the Italian gave the terrorists $1 million to secure the release of their hostages. That should buy a lot of dead American soldiers and civilians sometime in the future. Funny, I haven't heard the White House say boo about this yet...

How quickly they fall. First we have Tony Blair trying to negotiate with terrorists - what exactly do you plan on talking to them about, Tony? And yesterday we had Italy's very conservative Prime Minister Berlusconi - the other BIG US ally in the war on terror - pay the terrorists a $1m ransom to get their hostages released. $1m bucks people (see the same article). This is a prime minister who Bush considers one of his staunchest allies in the coalition of the willing.

Three problems here:

1. Bush's coalition of the willing just became the coalition of the paying. And did anyone notice how all of this happened after the puppet Iraqi government announced last week it was going to cave to the terrorists and release Dr. Germ? Think it's just a coincidence that all the allies are now caving as well?

2. Berlusconi and Blair just raised the price on the head of every foreigner in Iraq. Want a million bucks? Kidnap a westerner. Want to talk with the Prime Minister of Britain? Kidnap a westerner. Got a special place in your heart for Dr. Germ? Kidnap a westerner.

3. And finally, thanks to our wonderful coalition of the willing ally Mr. Berlusconi, the terrorists in Iraq now have $1m more dollars than they had two days ago. Think about what kind of hell they can unleash on our troops - let alone on, say New York or Chicago - with $1m bucks in the bank.

THIS is what George Bush's war on terror has bought us. Is Bush still defending these partners as the best coalition ever?